My Football-Shaped Heart

Thursday, December 15, 2011

We had our fetal echo follow up today (Jackson wouldn't cooperate last time).

Our son has a mild heart defect :*( Bicuspid aortic valve. It's not nearly anything like what I have and if it requires surgery it will be an outpatient catheter type, and hopefully not until he's older. I know he will be fine, but earlier today was rough. Knowing it's due to my genes just makes me feel like crap. Having been through what I have with my heart, the thought of him going through anything similar scares the crap out of me. We'll be monitoring it monthly before I give birth to see where it is and then we'll go from there. My 10 year old brother actually has the same defect, which I totally spaced at the appt. He's doing great and was told surgery may be an option at the age of 50. Hopefully our son gets the same prognosis. Good news is, our baby girl's heart is perfect.

Other updates that have happened since last post:

-Baby Girl's cysts have completely resolved. Yay.

-Everything still looks good with his umbilical cord and he's growing like he should. At the last u/s 2 weeks ago, they were both around a pound :)

-My cervix started to shorten a bit so I'm resting more.

-We went on vacation, which was exhausting and probably the cause of the shortening. LOL We did A LOT of walking in New Orleans.

-We had our first baby shower with family and friends in Memphis and it was amazing. Our babies (and us) are very spoiled.

Monday, October 31, 2011

I realized I never did an update. Here is what we found out last week.

Just got back from an awesome appointment!! We met with the genetic counselor, who told me that my b/w was the best it could possibly be!! Risk for Downs is 1:9,000 and risk for Trisomy 18 is 1:100,000! Spina bifida was also negative. So our girl's chances of having a defect are pretty slim. No amnio for me, which the counselor totally agreed with. She said it looks like the CPC is just an isolated marker and nothing we should be concerned with. She also told me the risk of my heart defect being carried on is 2.5%, but the echos have been normal so far; I'm not worried.

We went in to check my cervix and we got a surprise detailed u/s too! So awesome. Babies were so active! Her cyst was still there (obv), but should clear up by 29 weeks. Everything else was totally normal. Our boy weighs 7 oz and our girl 8 oz. Cord is still in the membrane (which won't change), but looks fine.

This weekend, we finally got the nursery room all cleaned out. We set up our two cribs and the furniture too to get an idea of the space. We'll have to move it all when we paint, but oh well. It's going to be a little snug once we get a glider in there, but it'll work. It was really fun to hang their clothes in the closet too.

So I go back on 11/8 to see both my MFM and OB. I'm hoping everything looks great. We have a vacation to Memphis planned for Thanksgiving week and I would hate to need to stay home.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

A boy and a girl!!! So so excited. Obviously we would have been happy no matter what, but we can't pretend we weren't secretly hoping for one of each. Our OB told us yesterday and said all my first trimester screening came back normal. Yay. Then we went in to see our MFM. He confirmed the news, but gave us some not so fantastic news too.

First the great.

-Definitely a girl and a boy :)

-Cervix is nice and closed

-Babies weigh approx. 5 oz. each

-Baby A's heart issue seems to have resolved and looks normal.

-Risk for Downs 1:23,000, risk for Trisomy 18 1:100,000-This was from the b/w...I looked on the computer screen, they didn't actually tell me!

The not so great:

-Baby A has a Choroid Plexus Cyst in her brain, which can be associated with Trisomy 18. BUT she has not other characteristics so far, heart looks great, her hands were nice and open, not clenched. We did the 2nd Tri b/w screening today and go back on the 25th to go over the results and meet with a genetic counselor. Depending on that we would decide on whether or not to do an amnio.

-Baby B has a Velamentous insertion of the umbilical cord. Umm what? Basically the cord goes into the membrane that is separating the two babies and then into the placenta, instead of going straight into the placenta. We'll have to monitor his growth rate and watch it closely. It also means I will have a c-section no matter what (guess no more back and forth on what I wanted). We may have to deliver early if it becomes to dangerous for them in there. I also may be on bed rest sooner than anticipated, but right now I don't have to change a thing.

Other than that everything looks good. He told me not to worry/stress about anything right now and that he'd be taking care of us and watching them closely. I still cried the way home, the way to work, and at work, but I'm feeling ok about it. It's just not fun to get any less than perfect news. I feel like we already went through 2+ years of crappy news. I was hoping this pregnancy would be the end of that and all would be perfect. My husband still thinks everything is and will be. I do too, but I worry more. I can't help it. It's in my nature, plus I'm a mom! Aren't we supposed to worry?!

Monday, October 3, 2011

So they day after we met the OB, we went and saw our MFM (high-risk OB). I really liked him and we got to see the babies for over 30 minutes. We went ahead and did the NT scan as well. The measurements came back good, but I haven't heard on the blood work. We see him next week so I'll ask then. Hopefully no news is good news.
Baby A did have some reversed blood flow in the heart, but he told us it's way too early to let it worry us. We'll take a closer look next time. I'm really optimistic that it's nothing, but having gone through all the heart issues myself, it's one of my biggest fears for my babies. Dr. B also told me he was 85% sure Baby A is a girl. Baby B, however, wouldn't cooperate at all. Very typical for him/her. Hopefully we'll find out for sure next week.
The week after that I had my appointment with my cardiologist. That went excellent as far as my heart, but it was quite eventful. The night before I started having some red spotting, which started getting slightly heavier that morning....almost to a light period. I called my OB, who told me not to be concerned unless it got heavier. Being the nervous nelly that I am, I checked into the ER at the hospital by my cardiologist. I had almost a 5 hour wait between appointments anyways so I figured I might as well. After about 3-3 1/2 hours in the ER, tons of blood tests, a catheter for a urine sample, and lots of babies, they finally did an u/s. My babies were moving around like crazy and had strong heartbeats! Thank God!! So the doctor thinks that my blood clot finally passed, causing the bleeding. Here I am almost two weeks later and I'm still spotting a tiny bit. It's so annoying, but knowing my babies are ok, makes it ok. I'm thinking it'll be over with in the next few days.
Ok I will update after our gender u/s next week! EEK!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I'm pretty sure this ones a keeper :) Unless my cardiologist wants me at UCLA, but we'll worry about that later. He was very nice and thorough. He's for a vag delivery if it's possible so I was happy to hear that. Not sure what I want to do yet, but I'm glad I have the option.

Baby A was laying there like a sweet little angel, with a hb of 165. Baby B was moving around like a maniac, punching and kicking nonstop with a hb of 158. My OB said he's 80% sure what Baby A's gender is, but since Mr. DF wasn't able to come I asked him not to tell me. Hardest.thing.ever. I feel like it's gotta be a boy since he was so quick with it, but what do I know. We do see the high-risk OB tomorrow and Mr. will be there for that. Maybe we'll get lucky and find out. Hopefully we get clearer pics too.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

I have been a pretty lame blogger. I received a versatile blogger award and still haven't done my duties and returned the favor. I will try my hardest to do this soon!

As far as an update goes....We had our last appointment with the RE today! Our babies look great. Baby A is at 9w5d w/ a hb of 175 and Baby B is at 9w6d w/ a hb of 174. My blood clot has gotten half the size (28mm to 14mm). Woo hoo. I still have to take it easy though. I'm also stopping the progesterone now....That makes me nervous!! I'm tempted to take the last few, but Mr. DF says to listen to the doc. ;)

My due date has been changed back to 3/29, which puts me at 9w6d. So tomorrow will be 10 weeks! 1/4 of the way there!

My RE gave me a huge hug and told me he wanted me to update him every trimester and that he'd be expecting pictures around March/April. It was sweet and I really will miss him. That office was just amazing and I wish every doctors office ran the way they do. I won't miss the out-of-pocket bills we've been accruing though!

I got a little emotional on the way home and cried a bit. I was thinking of our journey, all the ups and downs. I thought of how Dr. G promised us when we met that he would get us pregnant. Here was are expecting two little miracles! It feels surreal at times and so amazing. I am so thankful that Dr. G was put into our path.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

I can't believe how much they've changed in a week! They both measured at 8 weeks yesterday so that's great! The heartbeats both looked strong. We will get to hear them next week! My blood clot hasn't changed in size at all so I am on total couch potato rest. :( My family is visiting and all went to the beach while I'm resting. A bummer, but obviously my babies come first.
Here they are:

That sac looking thing above the babies is the clot! Almost looks like triplets, huh?